The air was thick with the mineral stench of blood. Inside the canvas tent that served as Barrack Number 48, Charlotte searched for a place in the unconscious soldier’s body to insert the hypodermic. The poor gentleman had burns and wounds everywhere, but she managed to find a one-inch diameter spot on his thigh in which to plunge the needle. The man didn’t flinch, and Charlotte suspected that his injuries were too grave for him to survive. She recited a silent prayer for this man’s soul, then moved onto the next soldier.

The large canvas tents that were part of the field hospital covered the lawn in front of the chateau. Most volunteers referred to it as a chateau because it looked the part with its high ceilings, plentiful rooms and marble floors. However, it wasn’t a castle. It was a 19th century country manor.

A tendril of dark brown hair slipped from her headscarf, and she tucked it back in. Charlotte Patricia Zielinski didn’t care much whether her unruly hair was tame, but she did care about keeping healthy. She wasn’t a large girl, nor was she small. However, roughhousing with her brother Ian for so many years made her strong.

After preparing another soldier for the operating theater, she took a short break and sat on a bench near the tent.

She glanced up at the dark sky, enjoying the quiet. After the sunrise, she’d hear the distant booming that came with being ten miles from the front.

After her bout with influenza last month, she’d felt fatigued for weeks. In the past few days, she had enough energy to move a mountain.

Sister Betty, the medical volunteers’ middle-aged supervisor, called to her from the barrack beside her, Number 49. She was a big-boned woman who seemed taller because she always stood so straight. Charlotte wasn’t sure whether it was because she was British or because she was a big woman, but she also had a booming personality and a loud voice.

Charlotte stood up to speak with Sister.

“How many more men have to be prepared for the O.R., Miss Zielinski?”

“Four, Sister.”

“Maybe you’d be of more use in this barrack.” She pointed toward Number 49.

“Certainly.” She turned to alert her co-worker in 48, when Sister yelled, “Wait.”

Charlotte stopped. “Yes?”

“Perhaps you’d better stay where you are. If there are only four left to prepare, finish that duty, then report to this barrack.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

It took a bit of getting used to, but here in Europe, nurses were referred to as sisters. And all sisters – and most medical volunteers – wore headscarves that looked like habits.

She approached a soldier on a cot, noticing the maple leaf on his collar. Canadians tended to be an agreeable bunch. He pursed his lips as she stripped his clothes, wincing as bits of skin came off with his pants. The poor fellow tensed, but Charlotte could only offer, “I’m so sorry. I am doing my best not to hurt you.”

The dark-haired man attempted a smile.

An ear-piercing explosion caused the world around Charlotte to vanish, and she reflexively collapsed on the cot, falling across the soldier lying in front of her. Ears ringing, she remained still for what seemed like an hour but was likely a few minutes. Blinking, she opened her eyes and stared at the metal side of the cot in front of her and felt the soldier moving underneath her.

Dr. Barbara Golder is the author of FQP’s newest book, Dying for Revenge: The Lady Doc Murders Book One. Today is the last day of the Virtual Book Tour for her book and also a giveaway. Leave a comment below (before June 20th) to be entered to win a free PRINT copy of Dying for Revenge?

EGH: As a writer, I would think that having worked in the medical and legal professions would give you a plethora of good writing material. But what — or who — actually gave you the idea to be a novelist?

BG: I got my start writing as a lark. The Telluride Times Journal, a newspaper that is no longer in publication, had a competition for the best skiing accident story. I had a particularly amusing anecdote which I wrote up and sent into them. When I got the newspaper a couple weeks later I was looking at the winning entry of the contest and didn’t actually realize until I got halfway through it that it was mine.

Because we have a second home in the area, I got the bright idea to write a column about second home ownership. It was a humorous column and I had a lot of fun doing it. After a couple of years of this,my husband and I reconnected with an old friend, Doreen Thistle, who happens to be an editor and literary agent. Steve, my husband, sent her some of my columns and she asked whether I had ever considered writing fiction.

I think everyone who loves books dreams about writing the Great American novel. I never had any illusions that I could write the Great American Novel. But I thought I might be able to spin a reasonably good dime-novel murder mystery. I suppose I have always been something of the storyteller, particularly when my children were little. And I have always been a teacher and had a knack for bringing in concepts that don’t seem to be terribly similar and making them work together. I suppose that’s a kind of storytelling as well.

And I have always enjoyed murder mysteries from the time I first read Sherlock Holmes. I had actually had an idea knocking about my head for probably 10 years and decided to give it a try. Doreen, now my literary agent, asked me to send a first chapter. I did, she liked it, and she coaxed the rest of the book right out of me. I wrote nights and weekends for a year or so getting Jane’s story down on paper. Doreen was very much the midwife.

Part of the reason I wanted to write this book the way I did is that I got very tired of reading murder mysteries that had absolutely no mention of faith. I spent a lot of time in forensic pathology, dealing with people who have just been confronted with sudden and unexpected death. I can tell you from my experience that they do not ignore God. They might rail against Him or they might run to Him but they don’t –by and large–ignore Him. I wanted to write something that was a little closer to my own experience. Not a book that is centering on faith, but a book in which faith is quietly central to the characters and just part of their ordinary struggle in life.

EGH: As an author myself, I know that some of my own idiosyncrasies, personality traits and habits show up in my characters and more specifically, my protagonists. How close to the character Jane are you? What are the similarities and what are the differences between you and Jane?

BG: This will give you an idea of how incredibly clueless I am. When I first had a friend read the earliest drafts of Dying for Revenge, he commented on how much of me there was in Jane and I was dumbfounded. Jane is something of a smart alec, as I am. Certainly many of her expressions are mine. And there was something of a spiritual journey involved in writing the book. It started out one way and ended quite another and I worked through a lot of my own thoughts, ideas, and I suppose my own injuries as I wrote about them through Jane’s eyes. But she is a totally different woman. Really. She’s smarter, she has more faith, she has more children, and she’s a lot braver than I am. But of course, we share a background in medicine and law, and apparently she talks a lot like I do.

EGH: The characters in your novel are so well-developed that I feel like I know them. How do you go about developing your characters? Do you write character studies or base your characters on people you know?

BG: I suppose I do a little bit of both. Instead of writing the book in a linear fashion, I tend to write the scenes that I see most clearly and visually first and then go back and work in the connecting bits. The characters come alive as part of the story and they really do take on a life of their own. They aren’t, for the most part, consciously based on anyone I know (including myself). I have always been an observer of people, and part of being a pathologist, like part of being a writer, is noticing the details of situations and people. I suppose that comes through in my writing. I do try to keep track of the details of the characters life so that I don’t make timing mistakes or continuity mistakes. My character studies tend to be brief little sketches but I have found them to be very helpful

I do have to admit that my son gave me the inspiration for no less than four characters in the book. There is a wealth of material in Nathan’s life to work with. (Thanks, son!). And I have to say it one more time that my husband is not –repeat not– Dead John.

EGH: I learned from your author bio that you are an avid reader. What are three novels that you’ve read recently that you recommend?

BG: This is going to sound odd, but I haven’t read any novels recently apart from all the work I’ve been doing on my own! Most of my leisure reading tends to be philosophy, theology, bioethics, or cosmology these days. I would recommend “The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos” by Brian Schwimme. It isn’t a novel but it is wonderful. One of my longtime favorites is “Grandmother and the Priests” by Taylor Caldwell–I love her detailed and visual style and her leisurely and entirely Celtic way of telling stories. And like any good Southerner, I love anything by Flannery O’Connor. Ian Rankin’s “Knots and Crosses” I liked very much; his character development is splendid, and I love his use of language. And the story is something more than just the mystery, which I appreciate in a good novel. His books tend to be, at least for me, about relationships as much as they are about situations.

EGH: Most of the setting of the novel is Telluride, Colorado. Why did you choose this setting for the first book in the series? Will the other books take place in Colorado or will there be other settings?

BG: I chose Telluride because it seemed to work. I suppose it was because I was working for the paper there at the time. Anyway it’s a lovely town, we have enjoyed being second homeowners there for many years. It is a quirky community that provided the right kind of infrastructure for the story. The next books in the series will take place in different places. Jane has children scattered throughout the world, Eoin is Irish, and it seems like a good idea to move the stories around. Telluride, like Cabot Cove, is too small to sustain too many murder mysteries! Even Jessica Fletcher had to go out and about.

To enter to win a print copy of Dr. Golder’s new novel, please leave a comment below (before June 20th).

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I am an author, editor, self-publishing book coach, speaker, publisher, NFP teacher, book reviewer, Theology of the Body teacher and Marriage Preparation Instructor. However, the roles I love the most are being wife to my husband of 36 years, James, and mother to our five adult sons, ages 19-31.

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